There are about ten pages on this site and I am interested in looking at all of them The three I will review today are the Access, Assessment and English Language Learners pages. Remember this is a research site and organization. I have found some pretty interesting things being researched here.
Access: some of the titles on the research being done in this page are:
Remarks by Secretary Arne Duncan on the state of Pre-school - NIEER 2013 year book release press call.
Expanding access to Quality Pre-K is sound public policy.
Promoting a Culture of Inclusion Birth - Third Grade Systems Within State and Local Education Agencies .
This one is worth the read if you are interested in inclusion. There are several memes that didn't make sense to me but the rest was interesting.
Assessment:
The research here was interesting and had to do with what could be given to policy makers. We all need and must do assessments. This page gives a criteria for doing that but also has a lengthy power point on an assessment tool developed by Rutgers.
The article I found most interesting here was the one titled, Young Hispanic Children: Early Learning
Needs and Opportunities: National Summit on Hispanic Early Learning
I encourage you to read this one the statistics will surprise you.
English Language Learners:
Many articles having to do with Hispanic children and families and the importance of serving ELL students.
Early Childhood Choices and Hispanic Families.
Policy Brief - Preparing Young Hispanic Dual Language Learners for a Knowledge Economy
Experimental Comparison of Two -Way and Monolingual Immersion in Preschool.
All this research is interesting, as a teacher who will encounter all of these paradigms in her work I am excited that there is some place to read what the research finds and what policy recommendations are being made. Many times I feel the policies are being made with out considering the child, families and teacher and how the policy will affect practice in the classroom. It is good to know there is information out there so I can keep abreast and hopefully ahead of what is going on. In this way we can anticipate the changes coming and be better prepared when the policy changes are made into mandates
Thanks for dropping by:
Here is a little something I found and thought would be fun to try :-)
It looks like we both chose research sites. Mine is heavily based on psychology and I really like it as much as education pages. Gives me a chance to go a little deeper in a different direction....AND THE FORK CRAFT, doing it MONDAY!!! (We have another 8 days of school left and I need to close down some centers to start cleaning..so this will be perfect. I can allow the kids to use up all the paint and make a great summery spring craft too!!!)
ReplyDeleteLinda -
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your outside resources. These are going to be on my list to add to resources as well as do a little researching on them as well.
I can agree that when it comes to ELLs that policy holders are not really thinking about each and every child and their families. In a discussion this week with a colleague, I discussed how Head Start waits until there is 50% of a classroom with different home language before hiring a staff member to be in the classroom. In my experience I have seen the struggles for the teachers, children and parents of just one child in the classroom who spoke another language other than English. The communication frustration was awful for every one. I hope that having this information will help providers to (as you said) stay abreast of these issues and help guide their fights for better quality of services.
Thanks for sharing!
Oh and LOVE the craft idea you shared!
Gena
I am glad that this week's search has led you to new tools to help you implement a a more mindful approach in your practice. I agree with you in that I feel many policies are create with the wrong parties and intentions in mind. Within the population that you work with, do you support many ELL families? Have you been able to implement any successful strategies when working with this diverse, and highly under-supported population?
ReplyDeleteI have not woked with a classroom that has ELL leaners except for a short time and we had a little boy whose mom was Thi and dad was American. He was fluent in both but I think he struggled with the environment and the dual language in the home and then something different at school. He had also spent the last year in Turkey so he was a bit overwhelmed I think. To help him I found giving him time to respond was effective. I could see him doing translations in his head some days. He was an engaging child and I know he will do well. It was interesting to see though how he worked it out in the class of loud kids who spoke a different dialect of English as well as a totally different culture
ReplyDelete